


You Don't Know Me (Though I Wish You Did)

by blackkitty9, CatherineEmbrace



Category: Oxenfree, Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ghost AI, Grimmons, M/M, More characters to be added, Multi-Persepctive shifts, Original AI Characters, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Oxenfree AU, POV Original Character, Time Loop AU, Tuckington - Freeform, Yorkalina, ghost au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-08-23 08:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8321113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkitty9/pseuds/blackkitty9, https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherineEmbrace/pseuds/CatherineEmbrace
Summary: Four New Recruits to the Freelancer Project, taking place on Edwards Island. It was supposed to be the best party of the year,It was supposed to be a great way to introduce the projectIt wasn't supposed to happen like thisWhen a radio ruins everything.





	1. New recruits

**Author's Note:**

> !WARNING!  
>  If you haven't played/know the plot of the indie game Oxenfree, I highly recommend checking it out before you read this fic as there will be major reference to the plotline of it and some spoilers. I will be going from RVB up to season 10 and this fic will include several OC's both mine and that of my friends. I sincerely hope that you enjoy this fic (it's more complex to write than you'd think) once more, i recommend checking out Oxenfree and RVB before reading :)
> 
> -Black

Agent Nebraska,  N or Neb as she was known to her friends, leant over the railing of the ferry, watching the cool blue-green sea water brush past a soft tangle of seaweed, glaringly bright in the late afternoon sun. The new tech agent couldn’t help but grin, excitement coursing through her. Her pale skin and light brown hair, tied up in a low ponytail, were catching a fair amount of sunlight, the warmth provided a strangely comforting feel. 

 

“You’ll fall in if you’re not careful.” The clear voice of agent West Australia, known as West or WA, spoke from behind her. “And I don’t want to have to treat pneumonia.” She was the newly recruited head medic.

 

WA was tall, athletic, and well-set with fiery red hair and a gazillion of freckles, it would be almost impossible to count them all. Another voice, almost scarily close, appeared as well as a hand placing a small amount of pressure on her back. 

 

“And what if I pushed her in? How about that, West?”

 

“Don’t you dare Cerberus.”

  
  


The male shrugged and leant back on prosthetic legs, his thin and rat-like tail wrapping around the leg of the medic. He was pale and had sort of stringy blonde hair.

 

“Make me.”

 

A soft grumble of something came from the last agent on the boat, “shut up won’t you?” 

 

Erith, the final agent,was currently lying across several plastic chairs, trying and failing to nap. Along the other sets of plastic chairs stood their luggage. 

 

Nebraska frowned at Cerberus “Please don’t push me into the ocean, I prefer to stay dry thanks.”

 

Cerberus chuckled and brought out a camera.“so, I was thinking…do you guys want to take a photo of just us, on the boat? Just of us newbie’s so we can look back on it with fond memories and-”

 

“Alright, alright already, we get it.” West’s voice cut across him, “gimme the damn camera, you’ve gotta try and get Erith up.”

 

Cerberus groaned but went dutifully to wake the half-asleep brunette. Nebraska chuckled and inspected the camera 

 

“Ooooooohhh polaroid!” She grinned.

 

“Don’t you dare touch it, N! We all know that you’d break it within ten seconds.”

 

“I would not!” There was a pause, “Well….maybe…..”

 

West chuckled as Cerberus returned with a disgruntled looking Erith, Nebraska practically sprinted to the front of the boat. “C’mon guys!”

 

Erith rolled her eyes and went to stand beside her longer haired companion, Cerberus joined beside Erith and West slipped in on Nebraska’s other side. 

 

“Say ‘Cheese’!” Cerberus grinned as the camera flashed and everyone had to blink momentarily to rid themselves of temporary blindness. 

 

“Damn that flash is bright…” Erith said, shaking her head.

 

“Agreed,” Nebraska nodded, “very, very bright.”

 

There was a pause, then Cerberus asked, “hey, N, you brought the radio, right?”

 

“Of course.” Nebraska pulled out the small pocket radio, definitely not the standard issue army one. 

 

West frowned, “Where and how the hell did you get that?”

 

N grinned, “I may or may not have hidden it in a pair of socks.”

 

Before any of the other agents could comment, however, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker:

 

_ “Passengers we will be arriving soon. Check under your seat to make sure-” _

 

Cerberus cut across it, “you don’t leave behind any personal belongings or children. Thank you.”

 

N rolled her eyes, “really?”

 

“What? It’s a recorded message they play on literally every tourist boat.”

 

“So, you’d call this a tourist boat? Even though we’re being taken to a military operation? On an island?” Erith asked.

 

“On a what?” Cerberus said sarcastically.

Erith just rolled her eyes as the boat pulled up to the dock and the team of four gathered their belongings. The dock was surprisingly empty when they arrived, and a chill mist had settled over the floor of the island, ankle high. 

 

“Creepy,” West commented, “no reception either.” She added, glancing down at her phone. 

 

N shrugged, “This is why I brought books. Cookbooks.”

 

“N, we can hardly trust you with most things, how can you be trusted to cook?” Cerberus asked.

 

“Ouch.” N said pretending to be hurt “I don’t cook, I  _ bake. _ ”

 

“Bake?” A cheery male voice said through the fog, a dark figure steadily growing closer, which revealed itself to be a young man wearing...pink armour. 

 

“Oh...uh, hi.” N said somewhat awkwardly “I’m Agent Nebraska, uh, you can call me N, technology specialist, and this is-”

 

“Agent West Australia, WA or West for short, head medic.”

 

“Agent Erith, Sniper.”

 

“Agent Cerberus, also tech, except I don’t destroy it like somebody does.”

 

N frowned. “It’s not destroying!”

 

Cerberus shrugged, “yeah, yeah, sure.”

 

The man in pink armour chuckled “I’m Donut, part of the Special Ops Unit, c’mon, everyone else is waiting just past here.” He waved a hand around at the mist covered shores. 

 

The team of four - now five - made their way through the shores of the, admittedly small from the outside, island, they were led through a series of buildings, and N droned out the majority of Donut’s smalltalk until-

 

“And of course, me and Doc take over the kitchen, we love to bake stuff! Pies, cakes, pastries, you name it, we can bake it.”

 

N grinned “I love baking! I’ve perfected my Apple cake, banana cake, donuts, lemon cakes, cheese twists, herb pull-aparts- i could go on, but uh….I don’t think you’d want me to ramble.”

 

The pink armoured man, if they could see under his visor, was grinning. “Yes! Oh it’s awesome to have another baker onboard! We’ll need to make another copy of the keys to the kitchen then…”

Erith chuckled, “you’re already making friends, N.”

 

West nudged the shorter female, “hey, no doubt you’ll find someone to get along with too.”

 

Cerberus just rolled his eyes. “So, where exactly is the base?”

 

Donut chuckled, “the whole island is, well, mostly.”

 

“Mostly?”

 

“You’ll find that out later, first-” they emerged through one final door and suddenly they were face-to-face with a rather large group of people. The majority of them out of armour.

 

A blonde stepped forward, “Agent Washington, a pleasure to meet you all, I’m sure you have a lot of questions and are wanting to get settled in, follow me, and I’ll try and answer them.”

 

Washington immediately began moving towards a rather large building with several stories, and the four new recruits tried to catch up to his rather large strides. 

 

“So,” he began, “what about names?”

 

“Agent West Australia, just call me West, or WA.” West began.

 

“Agen Nebraska, N for short.” 

 

“Agent Cerberus.”

 

“Agent Erith.”

 

Washington nodded “You’re free to just call me Wash, most people do. So um….divisions?”

 

“Medic.”

 

“Technology”

 

“Sniper”

 

“Technology as well, except I don’t delete hard drives from things.”

 

“Hey!” N frowned, shooting a glare at Cerberus “I don’t always do that!”

 

Wash chuckled, “Oh now i’ve got to hear your story sometime.” He led them up several flights of stairs, and finally in front of three rooms, all with plaques. 

 

“Tada!” Wash grinned, “your rooms where you will now spend the rest of project freelancer in, uh, besides you, West, you kind of have the medical bay all to yourself, minus Doc, er, the head nurse.”

 

West chuckled, “I was slightly curious as to why there was only three doors and four agents.”

 

Wash started to lead West away towards the medical bay, leaving the other three agents standing in front of their doors. 

 

Cerberus grinned, “fuck it.” He opened the door and waltzed inside like he owned the place, well technically he did. 

 

N cautiously entered her own room, it was fairly spacious, a desk in one corner, a bed pushed up beside the window, a chest of drawers and some shelving. She placed her bags in the centre of the wooden flooring, tugged open dusty curtains and set to work. by half an hour the room was starting to look like a place she could call her own, she was setting down the final stack of recipe books when there was a knock, as she opened the door, two men were standing in front of her, one with a greying goatee, and the other with rather dark skin and calculating eyes, of course, the Director and the Counsellor. 

 

“Uh...Hi, can I help you?” N began

 

“Welcome Agent Nebraska, we’re glad that all of our new recruits arrived here safe. Of course, all of you will be required to take some field and aptitude tests, currently we have Agent West Australia sparring with Agent Washington in the training field, you will follow after her and will then be required to take a written examination, and finally, a special skills examination.” the Counsellor listed it all off, very businesslike.

 

“Your armour is waiting for you in the armoury below, the Counsellor will take you, and Agents Erith and Cerberus will be there there promptly.” the Director finished

 

N nodded “I see. And how shall I address you both?”

 

The Counsellor chuckled, “just Counsellor and Director are fine, Agent Nebraska”

 

N smiled and headed downstairs where Erith was already suiting up, clipping her… unusually coloured armour into place. 

 

“Why teal and...orange?”

 

“I felt like it.”

 

“Huh….” N said, starting to get changed into her own armour.

 

Erith nodded towards the purple armour with silver accents, the armour that N could absolutely and definitely call  _ hers. _

 

“What about you?”

 

“I… reeeeaaaaalllly like those colours.”

 

“The silver doesn’t really….it looks like the same colour as Washington...only brighter and more reflective.”

 

“So?”

 

Erith just shook her head and shrugged.

 

N walked out to the training arena, just as West walked off, covered in… paint?

 

“What happened?”

 

“Lockdown paint….good luck.”

 

And then she was gone, leaving N standing in front of the training arena, alone.

 

_ “Agent Nebraska,”  _ the cool female voice came over the speaker system, “ _ please report to the training arena for your field test against Agent York _

 

Agent York? Now this was new. Nebraska walked in, curious more than anything else, up high on the wall she could see a scoreboard, ranked with numbers and names, above that was a high glass wall, with agents spectating, and she swallowed, thinking that she had an audience, across from her stood someone in brown armour, Agent York she assumed.

 

_ “Commence hand-to-hand combat round in 3, 2, 1-” _

 

A great clang went off to signal the round, and N had almost no time to prepare herself as the other agent, York, began to charge at her, she only just managed to dodge and even then she wasn’t exactly agile. Within minutes he had her pinned, and when the round ended it was 2-1 to York. 

 

N watched as the floor style shifted, trying to catch her breath, the other agent walked up to her. 

 

“Sorry about that, we didn’t exactly get any formal introduction, I assume you’re Agent Nebraska?”

 

N nodded, “yeah, so you’re Agent York?”

 

“Yep. damn, you sound younger than I expected, how old are you?”

 

“25, almost 26, why?”

 

York laughed, “you sound like you’re 13 or something.”

 

“Yeah right.”

 

_ “Agents, commence the lockdown paint round in 3, 2, 1-” _

 

N raced for the nearest pistol, she had no idea what “lockdown paint” meant but this she knew, cocking the pistol she crept towards cover, ducking and darting to and fro, a glance to her right let her see a snippet of blurry brown armour. Bingo. She crept past another block and fired around the corner, she grinned as she heard him yell, she hit her mark. 

 

“Shit!”

 

She chuckled only to yelp as something fast and and hit her in the back, sending her forwards, she grumbled “oh now I understand what West meant about lockdown paint.”  

 

It was half an hour later when the round ended 3-2 to Nebraska.

 

“Damn…” York walked up to her, rubbing his shoulder “god, I  _ hate  _ lockdown paint. You’re a good shot though.”

 

N smiled, knowing she was bruising as they spoke. “Thanks, you are too. I didn’t realize paint could hurt that much….”

 

“You never went paintballing before UNSC did you?”

 

“No….not really.”

 

York laughed, “you’ll be a bit bruised but nothing major, I’m sure the new medic can patch you up. West, right?”

 

“Yeah, it’s West.”

 

_ “Trainers, please leave the training arena, Agent Erith, please prepare for your combat rounds.”  _

  
  


York led N down a few hallways and into what could only be assumed to be a classroom, empty, and….spacey. 

 

“Aaand unfortunately, this is where I must leave you. Written examination is normally the hardest.” York shrugged “see ya, Nebraska.”

 

“You can call me, N, if you want.”

 

“Alrighty then, see ya, N.”

 

N smiled as the door shut behind the tan armoured soldier, leaving her alone in the empty room. She sat down at one of the desks, thumbing over a clear test sheet, face down on the desk, with stationary beside it. The cool female voice started up again. 

 

_ “Agent Nebraska, Welcome to your written examination component, you will have 45 minutes to complete the assessment with 5 minutes reading time. You may begin when ready.” _

 

N flipped over the paper and scanned the questions, “what do you do when an ally is not responding to radio calls?”, “what is the number of weak points within an attackers armour?”...

 

“These are easy…” she murmured, flicking through the rest of the pages

 

_ “Your five minutes allocated reading time has ended, you have 45 minutes to complete the rest of the assessment. Good luck.” _

 

It was 35 minutes later that N had finished and checked over her answers. 

 

_ “Excellent. Agent Nebraska you will now move onto your Specialist Examination.” _

 

She smiled and nodded as an indication of thanks towards the voice, as she went to the door, a teal-armoured soldier was there. 

 

“Agent Carolina.” She held out a hand, “and you must be Nebraska?”

 

“Yes, please, call me N, everyone calls me N, it’s easier to call me N.” 

 

Carolina chuckled “well, pleased to meet you, N. I’ll take you to the tech lab, it’s a little way away though, and in a different building.”

 

N shrugged “I don’t mind.”

  
  


The two female agents walked out of the training arena (where Erith was currently Sparring with an agent in purple armour, similar to N’s) and towards a sleek, silver building, walking across the grass and dirt to get there. 

 

“I never would’ve thought you needed to wear armour all the time.” N commented.

 

“Usually, we don’t. However, because of the new recruits, we have to. Just for today. We wear it when training or on missions…..but not really any other time…” Carolina explained.

 

They approached the steel-grey building of what could only be the tech lab, because what else could it be besides the tech lab, it looked to be the most chrome building on the whole island. Carolina swiped a card into a slot beside the door and opened it, leading the way down hallways lined with sliding doors, she stopped at one and swiveled to face N. 

 

“Here we are, good luck.”

 

“Thanks.” she smiled “will I need it?”

 

“Maybe.” Carolina shrugged, starting to leave

 

N turned back to the door, opening it, inside was the Director and a terminal. 

 

“Agent Nebraska, nice to see you made it here, Agent New York didn’t go too hard on you?”

 

“Oh, no I wouldn’t say so, it was fairly matched.”

 

“Good to hear. Now, as you know, this is the specialist examination, you’re our new technology specialist along with Agent Cerberus, and from your record, you seem adept at programming and extracting data, as well as removing it, it this correct?”

 

“Yes. Mostly.”

 

“Mostly?”

 

“Well, uh, Director, I-I’m not exactly the most efficient of people, and I often make mistakes….”

 

“You were put on this team, not for your mistakes, but for your abilities, Agent Nebraska, show us what you can do.”

 

“Okay.”

 

N faced the terminal and booted it up, it was older tech than what she’d trained with but it would be fine. Deep breaths, that was it. She walked up to the terminal, booting it up. Automatically the UNSC logo flashed onto the screen before it filled with coding, clearly corrupted, or damaged by a reprogrammed file. A few quick commands took her to what she assumed to be the homepage, still filled with code, and once she managed to access the filing system she was fairly confident, or at least, she was until the entirety of the system was deleted.

 

“I...I-I didn’t mean to do that! B-But I can fix it! I’m sure I can fix it! Just...gimme a minute...maybe…” 

 

N looked at the Director in a state of somewhat panic, he only smiled: “you passed.”

 

“I….what?” She blinked, “I mean, uh, excuse me?”

 

“You passed, Agent Nebraska, you are free to leave, although I suggest you head to the Med bay, no doubt you might have some bruises after your spar with Agent New York.”

 

“H-How could I have passed?! I deleted the entire hard drive, including whatever files were on there! Some of them might have been important or...or…”

 

“It’s quite alright, Agent, when a terminal is in a state of destruction as was the one we gave you, the only option was the delete all of the files, you have done very well.”

 

N blinked for a moment before nodding “I...I see, well, I guess I’ll be leaving you for now, Director.”

 

“Indeed, well done, Agent.”

 

N left the building feeling somewhat disoriented, walking out of the doors and taking off her helmet, blinking in the bright sunlight. 

 

“How’d you go?” 

 

N had to blink a few more times to realize that the voice was from Donut, the pink armoured agent, except he was currently out of armour. 

 

“Donut?” N asked hesitantly. 

 

“Yeppers!” The blonde man grinned brightly, “oh, and while you’re out here,” he handed her a slip of paper which was unusually glittery, “tell the other new recruits about this, but no one else, hush hush, you got me?”

 

N chuckled, “yeah, I got you.”

 

The other agent winked and started to walk away, throwing something that glinted over his shoulder.

N attempted to catch it, fumbled and dropped it with a soft “chink” of light metal, picking it up, it appeared to be a set of keys. 

 

“um...Donut? What are the keys for?”

 

“Baking!”

 

“So...these are….?”

 

“Keys to the kitchen!”

 

“Keys, plural?”

 

“One for the pantry, too.”

 

“Oh. that makes perfect sense….why did i not think of that?”

 

The dirty blonde ran a hand through his hair and laughed “Dunno, see you tonight, yeah?” 

 

N opened her mouth to respond, her eyes still glazed over and watched the keys, but when she looked up the space was empty and left only a vague trace of life having ever been there. She started trekking away from the spot before a realization hit her. 

 

“I don’t know where the Med Bay is…”


	2. Introductions

Thanks to the helpful (albeit glittery) signposts that had been dotted about the island, finding her way in the dark wasn’t too bad for N. 

 

“Follow the instructions on the letter and I’ll be okay.” N reminded herself, mumbling. 

 

It was only when she came face to face with a fence that she faltered, the sign on it said ‘wait. Climb when there are 4’.

 

4? What was that supposed to mean?

 

“Hey, I see someone el-Nebbie?”

 

N whipped around, “Erith?”

 

True enough Erith and Cerberus were walked down the path behind her, “Why’re you guys here?”

 

They both held up glittery pink invitations, and N held up hers to join them. “Donut?”

 

“Donut.” They both said, nodding. 

 

“... Why would he bother to ask us to keep it secret if he was going to invite all four of us anyway?”

 

“Four?” Cerberus asked.

 

“Yeah, four.” N pointed at the sign. 

 

“West.” Erith said, nodding. “We just have to wait for her.”

 

“If she decides to leave the med bay that is.” Cerberus chimed in.

 

N just nodded to a spot behind them “I think she has, Cerberus.”

 

The footsteps of the medic stopped when she saw the others, “... Did I miss a memo or someth-”

 

The rest of the party all holds up their glittery pink invitations as a reply.

 

“Oh. you too?”

 

They all nodded

 

“Yeah, all Donut’s work.” Cerberus grinned

 

They all looked towards the fence “Climb when there are 4” the note had said, and there were four of them now. 

 

One by one, they scaled the fence, all with relative ease. As N looked around she chuckled, “a beach?” She asked no one in particular, “a secret hidden beach for some strange reason?”

 

The group of people in front of them smiled; a large, rather bear-ish man sat on a log, gazing into the fire, a brown haired man with a scarred eye was making jokes to a girl with vivid red hair.

 

another red haired girl was sitting a little way from everyone else, sipping from a plastic cup. a blonde guy was making polite conversation with a black haired male who looked suspiciously similar to the director, and a blonde girl with purple tints was leaning against the fence, giving a cold look to everyone in the party. 

 

“Hey! Glad you all made it. So...this is our little setup, just a nice welcome party for you all.” Donut said as he walked up to the four.

 

The red haired woman with green eyes snorted. “Yeah, we were going to host the party tomorrow night but someone just had to intervene.”

 

N instantly recognised the voice, “Carolina?”

 

The redhead chuckled, “right on point.”

 

Donut smiled, “let me give introductions,” he pointed at the bear-like man, “that’s Maine, the one eyed man over there is York.”

 

York gave N a small wave.

 

“Then over there we have North and Church, the moody blonde is South, and the moody redhead is Tex. I think that’s everyone - oh! And the guy about to fall off of the fence os Wash, being helped by Tucker apparently.”

 

Sure enough as the four recruits turned there was a dull thud as a sandy haired agent landed on the ground and got up, dusting himself off, and beside him soon landed a dark-skinned man with some of the best dreads N had ever seen. 

 

“Oh, Donut you never said anything about hot chicks, bow chicka bow wow!”

 

Erith gave the newcomers a disapproving look while Cerberus snorted.

 

Wash rolled his eyes, “Tucker shut up.”

 

The other man, Tucker apparently, chuckled. 

 

Donut smiled, “we've  got beer, and other alcoholic substances. Oh and baked goods, so enjoy!

 

The four recruits looked at each other before heading forward to join the fray. 

 

Half an hour later Tucker had managed to get the new recruits, Wash, York, and Carolina to play ‘Kill, Kiss, Marry, Screw’.

 

“I’m telling you,” Carolina began, “I’d kill Tucker, Marry Wash, screw nobody, and Kiss York, but only ‘cause he’s begging for it.”

 

“I am not!” York said indignantly.

 

“Dude, what was the last success rate on your attempts to woo Carolina? 4.7%?”

 

“Shut up.” York rolled his eyes as Carolina snickered.

 

“Alright who’s next?”

 

“West, you wanna go?”

 

The Medic looked up from the campfire around them, “uh… sure.”

 

“So… kill, kiss, marry, screw?”

 

“I hardly know any of you well enough to do this… but alright.”

 

West studied the faces around her, examining each one with careful precision.

 

“West c’mon, just get it over with.”

 

“Kill Tucker.”

 

“C’mon! Why me?!”

 

“Kiss wash, Marry… uh… N or Cerberus.”

 

Cerberus shrugged, “mutual platonic Marriage.”

 

N looked up, “w-wait what?”

 

“Aaaaand screw Erith.”

 

Erith stared at West for a moment before grinning, “high five.”

 

West blinked and then narrowed her eyes, “you were sleeping weren’t you?”

 

“... maybe.” The rest of them laughed

 

“Cerberus, your go.”

 

The agent on West’s west side looked up. 

 

“What?”

 

“Your go.”

 

Cerberus glanced around before standing up and pointing out a finger and spinning on the spot, when he stopped his finger landed on N.

 

“Sorry, Kill N.”

 

N shrugged, “It's fine it happens.”

 

He spun again and landed on York, “kiss York.”

 

And so it continued with him marrying Carolina and screwing Wash.

 

“Uh…  know you’re doing this randomly but why me?”

 

Cerberus shrugged and sat back down while Carolina shot him a slight glare

  
  
  


Ten minutes later and Carolina was busy explaining the history of the island while Wash made his choices.

 

“So, this is Edwards Island, originally a lonely orphanage, then a military base, then another military base and now a military base with a small tourist section. This place is also famed for the sinking of the Kanaloa.”

 

“Kanaloa?” West asked.

 

“Yeah, a submarine that was sunk just off the coast of this place by a japanese sub in World War Two.” 

 

“Oh, wasn’t that the one that blew up and killed everyone on board?” Cerberus joked.

 

“Yes. A tragic accident.”

 

There was a brief period of silence as awkwardness settled over the group before Wash spoke.

 

“Okay who’s-”

 

“N, you still got the radio on you?” Cerberus interrupted.

 

“Uh...yeah.” N took it out of her back pocket, “why?”

 

“See those caves?”

 

N glanced to her right, a few metres away from them were a set of deep, black, fenced off caves, with ‘DO NOT ENTER’ signs all around them. 

 

“You mean those extremely dangerous looking black holes that will SWALLOW YOU WHOLE?” 

 

“Yeah, those things. We’ll need to get inside them.”

 

“... they’re all fenced off.”

 

“No shit. Look, I can rip them off very very easily, what you need to do is get inside and use that radio of yours to search for a frequency.”

 

“... why? And what kind of frequency?”

 

“Well… rumour has it that the ghosts from the Kanaloa explosion thingy are still here and can be contacted through radio waves.”

 

“... we are not going on a ghost hunt.” Erith deadpanned.

 

“Maybe you’re not-” N stood up, “but I am.”

 

“You can not be serious.”

 

West stood “I’ll go with her so she doesn’t kill herself in the process.”

 

“Hey!”

 

“Oh come on, N, you’re terribly accident prone.”

 

“... okay. Fine. You can come. But this is  _ my _ ghost hunt, got it?” 

 

“Yes m’am.” West rolled her eyes.

 

N shoved her playfully, “Shut up! C’mon, Let’s just go.”

 

Cerberus got up and sprinted towards the barrier on prosthetic legs, jumping up and managing to rip off a majority of the fending so they could go inside. “And voila.” He smiled, walking back and sitting down with the rest of the group as N and West started to walk to the caves. 

 

“Have fun you two.” He leant back and folded his arms, “now, Wash, Kill, Kiss, Marry, Screw. Go.”

 

N and West walked away towards the mouth of the cave as they heard Wash’s splutter. A slight scrambling as they entered and all too soon they had lost sound from outside completely, submerged the cavern as N fiddled with the tiny radio, twirling the dial in various directions. 

 

“You’re not going to find anything, Neb.” West sighed, leaning against a damp wall, “it’s hopeless.”

 

“Hold on. Ugh… I want to go deeper.”

 

“You’re gonna get lost.”

 

“No I won’t. If i’m in any trouble I’ll call out and you can come find me.”

 

“No way, I’m coming with you.  _ I’m  _ the medic here.”

 

And so the two women continued travelling down the winding passageways of the cave until they came to a section further down, high ceiling and a dusty, gritty floor. 

 

“Ballroom.” West said.

 

“What?”

 

“This is the ballroom of the cave.”

 

“Oh.” N wasn’t focussing, too distracted by the device in her hand, there was a soft “ping” and the radio’s screen glowed green. 

 

“What was that?” The redhead turned to her companion, who was still focussed on the dial, a few more turns and another, louder “ping” as the cave wall slowly lit up, a bright, vibrant green. 

 

“N seriously, what’s going on?” West had an edge of fear to her voice.

 

“I'm almost there…” N responded as a final “ping” made the green light grow further, engulfing them both until there was nothing left.

 

Just green.

 

Green.

  
Green.


	3. Ghost Hunt

Her head was fuzzy when she awoke, a blur of memories all at once. With a groan, the agent opened an eye, greeted by the starry night sky. Or so she thought.

  
“N! Oh thank god you're awake!”

  
It was then that she registered that the stars were freckles upon West's face.

  
“You were unresponsive for a few minutes. I put you in the recovery position. How do you feel?”

  
“Kinda drowsy, I guess?”

  
West moved away from the other agent, frowning, “no pain anywhere?”

  
“I don’t think so.”

  
The redhead nodded and helped N to her feet.

  
The beach was silent and dark, the fire put out, the sand remaining with the imprints of feet, slowly being washed away by the sea. N brushed the sand off of her back and hair, glancing around.

  
“Where is everyone? How did we get here?”

  
“I… don’t know.” West said, frowning.

  
The waves were still lapping at the surface of the beach, slowly trying to swallow the island whole in small, shallow mouthfuls.

  
“... do you hear that?” West asked

  
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”

  
“Exactly. It’s far too quiet.”

  
Indeed, the island was quiet, and even quieter. The absence of noise was so complete, no sounds of life, no human noises. It was as if the whole island was empty aside from them.  
N started to trek towards the fence. “C’mon...we should try and find the others.”

  
“They’re probably in bed already, N” West shook her head

  
“... I don’t think so.” N was already beginning to climb upwards, ignoring her friend’s remarks.

  
West sighed and followed her. The two women had scaled the fence with relative ease, coming face to face with a darkened and deserted military base. Not even the motion-activated floodlights were triggered as they walked in. The place seemed void of life. N had started to fidget with the radio again, West glanced at her.

  
“What are you doing?”

  
“Trying to find… the emergency communications station.”

  
“... You know what happened the last time you used that thing? We passed out and woke up in the beach.”

  
“So… you didn’t see it?” N asked, looking up and meeting West’s gaze

  
“See what?”

  
“The triangle. The bright… green-ish triangle?”

  
The other agent shook her head.

  
“Oh…” N said, frowning “well maybe… hmm…”

  
West looked at her, “you think you were hallucinating?”

  
“Maybe?”

  
The redhead sighed, “Alright. Try to find your comms station.”

  
N continued to fiddle with the radio as West tried to open the nearest door, which was unfortunately locked. It took three more doors and twelve minutes later for N to say, rather loudly:

  
“I’ve got something!”

  
West trudged back, “Okay, what does it say we should do?”

  
“It’s not the emergency Comms station… it’s… Wash.”

  
“...Wash? As in, the guy with blonde hair who sparred with me?”

  
N nodded and held up the radio so they could both listen.

  
_“Krrsch… okay I don’t know if this is working, but if someone can hear me… fuck it, like anyone can hear me up here.”_

  
There was an audible sigh.

  
_“Alright, this is the third time I’m trying this… uh… my name is Agent Washington of the Freelancer Project, I am currently stuck in Fort Milner… uh… if someone could send help? Or maybe get me out? That’d be great… krsschhhhhh… fuck fuck fuck… stupid feedback…”_

  
West’s eyes widened, “Holy shit, it really is Wash. But… why is he stuck?”

  
N shrugged, “dunno…”

  
“... See what else you can find.’

  
A few more dial turns (passing by the guided tour station and some obscure radio static) and they had stumbled upon another familiar voice.

  
_“Hey… is this thing on? Heh, testing 1, 2,3… uh… seriously though… can someone get us outta here? This is kinda… creepy. I don’t exactly appreciate being stuck in this stupid tower… um… yeah… so… help?”_

  
“That’s Cerberus.”

  
“Yup… um… what tower is he talking about?”

  
“Harden Tower. It’s the old communications relay point.”

  
“... How do you know that?”

  
“They had some maps in the med bay and I was bored.”

  
N shrugged and fiddled with the dial, “who else can we find?”

  
“Hold on, go back to Cerberus for a second.”

  
N did as her companion asked.

  
_“Hey, Erith d’you think this radio thing will work?”_

  
There was the muffled response of a feminine voice in the background.

  
“So… it’s not just Cerberus stuck up in Harden tower. Erith is there too.” N said worriedly.

  
“Dammit…” West muttered, “the real question is… how did they get there?”

  
“... I don’t know, West how did we end up on the beach?”

 

  
Silence followed that question, the brutal honesty that they didn’t know settled over them.

  
“What happened in the cave?” West asked quietly

  
“... I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Want to know who you think should be saved? Wash? or Cerberus and Erith? your choice. :)


	4. Static and Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed in the last chapter that I have decided to use Morse Code within this story; the translator I use is  
> http://morsecode.scphillips.com/translator.html
> 
> It works very well, and I find it very useful, however, in this chapter I am also using the Phonetic Alphabet and will be using it in the future. So, I suggest that bringing up an image with the Phonetic Alphabet on it would be a good call. 
> 
> As always, feel free to let me know what you think of the chapter and how the story is progressing :)
> 
> \- Black

The door was locked, and his security card wasn’t working. Correction, the door was locked, there was no security card slot and he had no key. Wash was slumped against the small communications desk, which was pushed up against a wall within the tiny dorm room. He had originally woken up half an hour ago, lying down on one of the bunk beds, which he had promptly fallen off of. He was lucky that his nightmares kept him up, he would often wander the Island and knew Fort Milner better that he’d like to admit to anyone, but right now…

 

“...Seventh time. This is Agent Washing from Project-”

 

_ “We know Wash, you can stop now. Also, the feedback, the communication system is probably kind of old, probably late 1940’s? Anyway-” _

 

Wash raced towards the microphone, “N?! Is that you?! Oh thank god!”

 

There was a snort of air and a muffled voice before the voice from earlier returned.

 

_ “Yeah, it’s me. And before you ask, you know the pocket radio? Um, doubles as a communication device. Me and West are coming to get you… please don’t panic. You’re first, then we’re gonna go and get Cerberus and Erith.” _

 

He frowned, “what’s wrong with Cerberus and Erith?”

 

_ “Oh, they’re stuck in Harden Tower!” _

 

There was a muffled voice just loud enough to be heard, “Don’t say it like it’s a good thing!”

 

“Uh...right.” Wash said, “so...um...I’m in one of the dorms… I… don’t know which one though.”

 

_ “-Could be a problem,”  _ the voice had swapped to West’s,  _ “There are about 6 different dorm buildings in Fort Milner… and  _ all  _ of them have comm stations… if N is right and yours is a 1940’s model… that’s still one of three buildings, the others all have 1930’s to early 40’s models…” _

 

Once again, a muffled voice, “How on earth do you know all of that?”

_ “Maps can be very detailed when you read every little feature and then read the guidebooks, but that’s not the point. There’s three comm stations to search, and only two of us, what’s more, I don’t think splitting up is a good idea after the cave-” _

 

“What happened in the cave?” Wash asked and there was a brief silence before N responded, seemingly having taken the radio back.

 

_ “We don’t know, Wash… It… Look, We’ll explain once we get you and Cerberus and Erith all unstuck.” _

 

N’s voice seemed to have changed, although it was hard to tell through the static, she seemed… serious all of a sudden. 

 

“Right. Well… come soon, would you? I uh… it’s not particularly nice to be stuck in a creepy dorm room…”

 

_ “We’re coming Wash, just hold on tight.” _

 

And the line clicked off, the little meters that had glowed green now faded back to sleep mode. 

 

Wash sighed and slumped back onto the table, with a little bit of hope. 

 

{ .---- ----. ....- ----- .----. ... ..--.. / - .... .. -. -.- / .... .- .-. -.. . .-. .-.-.- / --. .-. . . -. ..--.. / - .... .. -. -.- / ... --- -- . / -- --- .-. . .-.-.- / .-- . / -.-. .- -. / .-- .- .. - .-.-.- / .-- . .----. ...- . / .- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ... / -... . . -. / ...- . .-. -.-- / .--. .- - .. . -. - / .-- .. - .... / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.- }

 

N looked at West, “You seriously studied that map, huh?”

 

“Yep. Trust me, mate, I can roughly get around this place.”

 

N just shook her head, she knew that West was definitely one to sometimes give off a bit of her… Australian flair. “Mate…” she mumbled, chuckling. 

 

West had lead her past the original military complex, up some extremely steep steps and was now leading her through a place she called ‘Towhee Woods’. 

 

“We’re almost there, right?” N asked, she hadn’t turned the communicator back on from the ten minutes prior when she had said they were coming to rescue Wash.

 

“Yeah, just through the trees.”

 

The walk was brisk, surprisingly short actually, it almost seemed too short. They passed by a stretch of lake which N glanced into, smiling at her reflection, all brown hair and freckles and-

 

“West…” N had stopped, staring at her reflection.

 

West looked around, “Yeah?”

 

“... Are you seeing this?”

 

West walked over and stood beside her, “Seeing what?”

 

N blinked, and it was gone. There was her reflection, looking confused, and there was West’s reflection, looking slightly amused. 

 

“I...I thought… maybe I was wrong…”

 

“Just spit it out, N.”

 

“I thought my reflection had pink eyes.”

 

West burst out laughing, “Seriously? Pink eyes? You sure?”

 

“Yes! Stop laughing about it! This isn’t a joke!” 

 

{ .... --- - . .-.. .-.-.- / .. -. -.. .. .- .-.-.- / -.. . .-.. - .- .-.-.- / . -.-. .... --- .-.-.- / .- .-.. .--. .... .- .-.-.- / -. --- ...- . -- -... . .-. .-.-.- / -.. . .-.. - .- .-.-.- / ... .. . .-. .-. .- .-.-.- / . -.-. .... --- .-.-.- / . -.-. .... --- .-.-.- / -.- .. .-.. --- .-.-.- }

 

When West’s laughter had died to a chuckle, N had already marched several feet ahead of her, striding towards the Fort Milner outpost. Although, it suddenly seemed a lot longer than she’d first thought. Not that she cared, and so she kept walking, keeping her eyes straight ahead… until she passed by another silvery stretch of water, eerily familiar. She stopped and looked behind her, she couldn’t see West anymore, in fact, it seemed as though she’d been walking in a complete circle. 

 

“West?” N called out, a sense of suspicion quick to rise over her, “if this is some kind of trick to scare me, I don’t find it funny!”

 

Only silence met her. She glanced at the trees around her, all dark woods with a glittery moon high above them, and the breeze that had once seemed light and cool in comparison to their trek, now chilled her deeply. A slight glance into the pool, a regular reflection. 

 

“Heh… guess it’s just me and me.” She chuckled, trying to make light of the situation, until her reflection answered back, in a scratchy, warbly, static voice that sounded like a million voices, all stitched together with radio waves. 

 

_ “Just us and you. Playing little games in the woods. Isn’t this fun, Nebraska?” _

 

And the source? The turned off, silent radio in her pocket, now glowing a brilliant green. The little needle, now twirling from station to station but the dial wasn’t moving. The voices (voice?) were all clamoring to be heard, a deafening sound that made her want to drop the damn thing and run and yet she couldn’t move. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t. And her eyes slid shut, searching for some answer inside of her head and when she opened them there was-

 

There was West, laughing in hysterics by her side. 

 

“Pink! Are you kidding me?! Pink! Of all colours in the world it was pink!” 

 

N stared, unable to think properly as her companion looked up at her. 

 

“What? Can’t you take a joke?” The other agent straightened up and then took a proper look at her. “You look like you’ve seen something horrible. You okay?”

 

N looked at her “You… How… Where were you?!” Her voice sounded almost pleading. “You left me alone! And I… I was actually scared! I don’t know what kind of joke this is but I’m not having it! And… And-!”

 

West gripped N’s shoulder, looking into her eyes “Slow down. Just calm down for a second, okay? Deep breaths for me. In and out.”

 

N did as the redhead asked, slowly beginning to calm down. 

 

“Now. I want you to start from the beginning, go slowly, okay?”

 

N nodded “I… I walked ahead of you, and I thought I was going straight but I think I must’ve circled back along a different path because I ended up back here. But you weren’t here… And… And my reflection…” She broke off. “...You won’t believe me if I tell you.”

 

“Just tell me. It’ll be better.”

 

“... My reflection spoke to me. Through this,” She held out the radio “But it wasn’t my voice it was… Something else… Like a lot of voices, but not. I closed my eyes… And then I was back here.”

 

West looked at her seriously. “N, I’m not quite sure I follow… we’ve been here for the past five minutes, ever since you said you saw a reflection with pink eyes. Now I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I’m saying that I don’t think there’s any possible way that you could’ve done that if you were here. With me.”

 

“I know… that’s why I’m freaking out!”

 

“What’s more… this is the only path through Towhee Woods… It’s completely straight. No curves or branching paths.”

 

N looked forward towards Fort Milner, indeed there was only one path. 

 

“... We… Let’s just go and get Wash. Get this over with… I’m paranoid or something…” N said.

 

West looked at her “I don’t think you’re paranoid, N. I think that there’s something else going on. A logical, reasonable explanation for what you’re experiencing.”

 

N looked back at the other female, “I hope there is.” She tried to joke “I’d rather not be paranoid, thanks.”

 

West seemed to be relieved somewhat and smiled, “C’mon. Let’s go save Wash before he freaks out and starts using the comm station like a mantra again.”

 

N smiled and stuck a hand in her pocket, flicking on the small radio as they walked, their laughter drowning out the small amount of static. 

 

{ -.. --- -. .----. - / - .-. -.-- / .- -. -.. / ..-. --- .-. --. . - .-.-.- / . ...- . .-. -.-- --- -. . / ..-. --- .-. --. . - ... .-.-.- / .-- . / -.. --- -. .----. - / .-.. .. -.- . / -... . .. -. --. / ..-. --- .-. --. --- - - . -. .-.-.- }

 


	5. I Know it's Going Nowhere but Downhill

When they finally reached Fort Milner, West realized why most of the maps had been relabelled. What used to have been ‘Fort Milner - Military outpost’ had been scribbled over in black marker ‘Fort Milner - Military Deathzone’. The rest of the map continued similarly, with ‘Harden Tower - Communications outlook’ changing to ‘Harden Tower - Guilty’ and ‘Beacon Beach’ turned to ‘Drowning Central’. She didn’t know who had written over them. Fort Milner looked like a military base, not as high-tech as the modern Project Freelancer base, this was old. World War 2 era, the 1940’s, and some early 1950’s ideals. The run-down and chipped green paint covering the dormitories in contrast to the brilliant black of the main compounds, the mess hall and the officers’ room. Six big green building blocks, left scattered for children to find and break into.

N looked at her, “So… should I talk to Wash again? Find out which building he’s in?”

West thought and then nodded, “go ahead. It’s probably for the best.”

N took out the small handheld radio from her jacket pocket, West couldn’t understand why she had chosen to wear a jacket, it was summer, mid-year and hot as hell (although she was too used to the deafening heat of Australian Christmas) and yet N wore this baggy bright red jacket, when she herself was wearing t-shirt and ¾ pants.

“Hey, Wash, you there?”

_"Yeah, I’m-krschhhhhhhh- I’m here. Fucking, feedback. Have you arrived yet?”_

“Yeah, we’re here-” the brunette shoved her free hand in her jacket pocket, almost casually, calmly. “Can you peer out a window or whatever?”

_“Uh… yeah, alright.”_

A figure appeared at the window of the farthest dorm building

“We see you. We’re coming.”

_“Thanks guys, this really means a lot.”_

N flicked off the radio with a an air of confidence she didn’t have earlier, “c’mon, let’s go.”

West frowned and touched her shoulder, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine, really.”

“... you don’t seem fine.”

“... Let’s go save Wash.”

West noticed how N waited for West to walk ahead, how she stayed just a little too close for comfort. Scared. When they approached the door it swung open easily, the handle might have been rusted but the mechanism seemed to still be in some form of good condition, the small room seemed to have been left in a state of disarray, the chalkboard against the wall, clearly simply there for storage, had leftovers of old words upon it.

“God this place is creepy.” N said, her voice quieter than before, “I can’t wait to get out…”

“Well…” West nodded towards the stairs, “up we go-”

There was a squeak. Like ancient wheels. Then a scratch, that teeth grinding sound. Chalk.

“West…” N’s voice was barely a whisper, quiet and panicky.

Hands. No, handprints. There were handprints on the chalkboard. Holy shit. West stared at the black depths, following the handprints, until… there was something else being drawn, invisible chalk, stark white. A hangman. All neatly set up.

“N...let’s go.” West said certainly, just as the letter N wrote itself at the end of the word.

West frowned and glanced at the chalkboard as they steadily moved towards the stairs, more letters were forming

A-L---N

 

{ .. / ..-. --- .-. --. . - / -.-- --- ..- }

 

The steps ahead of them were rough, worn down from the number of soldiers who had raced up and down them on end, chipped and scraped. A square spiral with doors at each and every landing. Picking the lock, opening the door, finding nothing but dust, they ascended, staying close. In was in the fifth landing that they managed to find Wash, slumped against the desk. His head raised when they came in and a look of great relief spread across his face.

N smiled and hugged him, “Awesome! One down, two more to go!”

West sighed, “How can you be happy about that? It’s still two more people in trouble.”

“I’m just trying to brighten things up, anyway, we’ve got Wash haven’t we?”

West looked at Wash who was sheepishly observing them, she chuckled, “I suppose we have.”  
The trio set off, heading back down the stairs, West glanced at the chalkboard, the writing and handprints were gone, and N didn’t mention it. Wash didn’t seem to notice anything. Each of them were just glad for the company. Twice. It was Twice now that West had heard of something… unexplainable. This time, it had been face to face, it was her turn, and yet, it didn’t seem to be as much of a shock at what N faced in the forest.

 

{ .-- . ... - / .- ..- ... - .-. .- .-.. .. .- --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / - .-. -.-- / - --- --- / .... .- .-. -.. .-.-.- / - --- --- / ..-. --- -.-. ..- ... ... . -.. .-.-.- / .- / -- . -.. .. -.-. / - .. .-.. .-.. / - .... . / . -. -.. .-.-.- }

 

N suggested that they should go a different route towards Harden Tower, no more forest, and privately, West agreed. Wash had stayed mostly silent, thinking, apparently.

“Penny for your thoughts, Wash?”

“Uh...” Wash seemed momentarily startled, “it’s nothing much… just… I mean it was just some weird shit with the communicator.”

“... like what?”

“... Voices.” He admitted.

“Voices?” N and West exchanged glances.

“Well, yeah… but like… I dunno it was probably just some feedback stuff…”

“What did they say?”

Wash didn’t speak at first, watching the two intently before he sighed and said “It was something about memory… I didn’t really hear it all completely. Static and whatnot.”

West glanced at N who swallowed and nodded.

“I’ve heard it too. I’ll… explain later.”

West narrowed her eyes, a twinge of annoyance at N’s words.

“Why not now?”

N blinked, “well I mean… Cerberus is still stuck and…”

“Walk and talk?” West offered, hoping her voice sounded casual enough to hide her annoyance.

“I’d rather not.” N said simply, almost curtly.  
Wash glanced between them and sighed. “Guys, let’s just get this over with, tonight’s been enough havoc, I think we all just need some sleep.”

The two females didn’t say anything, although West couldn’t help glancing at the brunette, who was currently looking away from her. Was she actually hiding something?

Although the trip towards Harden Tower was longer when they didn’t go through the Towhee Woods, it was definitely much safer, well, as safe as they could be. Wash was silent, as he seemed to prefer to be but was extremely jittery, anxious. It was fairly well know that Wash had had some… issues, insomnia mostly, but it was very unlikely to see him this wound up about something.

The small trio walked ever closer towards Harden tower, N still fiddling with her radio, and by the time they reached it Cerberus’s long string of bad puns across the radio had become a form of personal torture for West.

_“Hey, whadda you call bleached steel on the beach?”_

“I dunno, Cerb.”

_“Wash! Get it? ‘Cause Wash has bleached hair and his armour is a steel colour and like… water?”_

The group gave a mixture of sighs and groans.

_“Pssh. that wasn’t even bad! Besides, you guys missed all of the talk about how Wash wanted to screw Tucker! Like, he actually admitted that shit!”_

“I was drunk!” Wash immediately denied, “I was just lying to get out of my goddamn turn.”

_“You kept making lovey eyes at Tucker, we all saw it.”_

“No I didn’t! Geez, just because of that one mission-”

_“Oh! Is that the one Grif was talking about? How you bridal-style carried Tucker to the med-bay?”_

“... Yes.”

_“I mean… I didn’t take you for a romantic, Wash-”_

“How about we change topic, hmm? I don’t see anyone going on about how you have a fucking tail, Cerberus.”

_“Oh! Well, funny story about that, y’see-”_

“We’re here, Cerb, no need to continue. We’re coming to get you and Erith.”

There was the beginnings of a response but N switched off the radio before they could hear it.

 

{ .-..-. .-- .... .- - / .- .-. . / -.-- --- ..- / - .- .-.. -.- .. -. --. / .- -... --- ..- - / . .-. .. - .... / .. ... -. .----. - / .... . .-. . .-.-.- .-..-. }

 

The trio stared up at the lights slowly flickering in Harden Tower and started to ascend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just so you know the little { I put at the start and end of each Morse Code section, should NOT be placed into the translator. Just the dots and dashes. The Morse Code will become quite a crucial part of the story later on, so i highly recommend you translate them.


	6. I Don't Wanna Feel Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !WARNING!
> 
> this chapter contains graphic descriptions of vomit, body horror, and possession (think The Exorcist...kinda.) if any of you might get disturbed or feel uncomfortable during this story, this is to let you know. also any extreme phobias, please stop reading. if you're okay with what i've mentioned above and probably more than feel free to read ahead. 
> 
> also, once again i want to remind you all about translating the morse code used within the story, from here on out the morse code, and phonetic alphabet are crucial to the story plotline, so if you have no way to translate it and/or do not the phonetic alphabet, feel free to message me and i can fill you in. i warn you that if you continue to read it without translating then future chapters will not make sense.

When door was found to be unlocked, Wash was the one to open it. Cerberus was lounging, yes, lounging upon the chair, his feet resting against the com station.

 

“‘Sup?”

 

They stared at him, mostly confused.

 

“Cerberus…?”

 

“Yep?”

 

“... How can you be so damn… er… calm?”

 

Wash’s question was exactly what the others had been thinking.

 

Cerberus shrugged, “meh, it’s mostly boring up here, I’m pretty glad you came, actually, it was about time.”

 

“... Wait, Cerb… where’s Erith?” West chimed in.

 

There was a pause where Cerberus’s smile fell and his face furrowed into a frown “Erith? ERith isn’t here, West. I was gonna tell you that before you guys cut me off.”

 

There was a brief silence as everyone exchanged glances.

 

“But we heard her. We _heard_ her.”

 

Wash’s voice had taken on a more panicked turn, serious.

 

“... Right. Well… maybe we should get out of here first, then we can work out what the hell is going on,” N’s voice broke through. “Erith clearly isn't here.”

 

“I think you guys mistook the static for a voice.” Cerberus shrugged, “She's probably in bed.”

 

There was no argument made as the four descended the ladder, heading towards the ground and the non-existent lights of the base compound further away.

 

“... static doesn’t sound like Erith and Erith doesn’t sound like static.” West persisted, “I was sure that I heard her.”

 

“We all were.” N agreed as her feet hit the ground and she stepped away from the ladder to let the others down.

 

“She's probably in bed already, asleep.” Cerberus shrugged

 

“Really?” West asked, clearly skeptical.

 

“Really.”

 

The group of four shared looks.

 

“Well, I suggest we go and check, then make a decision.” Cerberus said with an air of finality. “Then I’ll be proved right and we can all just forget about this mess in the morning.”

 

Still, an equally uneasy look passed between West, Wash, and N but nothing was said and nobody argued, so the four began to trek down the path that led both towards the beach and the main compound. It took at least five minutes for West to notice that Wash’s heavy footfalls had stopped, and only one for the three to hear the faint gurgling noise behind them.

 

Wash had stopped, standing in the middle of the path, a glazed look on his face as a deep gurgling noise came from him, enough to make N flinch in disgust and West to frown in concern, but before either of them could begin to speak Wash fell to his knees, and his forehead hit the ground shortly after.

 

“Wash?” West’s voice, though calm portrayed a deadly kind of concern.

 

N threw out an arm across West as she sensed the Medic preparing to move, and her reason became apparent when Wash started to levitate, actually levitate across the ground, like a puppet being pulled by a string right in the centre of its back, limbs hanging, loose and fluid, made of cotton and fabric and not skin and muscle and bone and blood. It didn’t take long until the string on his back seemed to travel down his spine and he straightened to standing, his limbs still lose, but his head was upright, his eyes had rolled back into his head and his mouth was wide, hanging open, his entire face flushed as blood seemed to rush towards his head. He was an high as the roof of Harden tower by now.

 

For a minute, Cerberus, N and West stared. For a minute, all of time seemed to hang in the balance, like pausing a scene on tv. For a minute, nothing happened, a glorious nothing in comparison to what happened next, for after that minute Wash started to scream. It was pained, terrified, like someone was physically torturing him, his body jolted like an electric shock, convulsing and curling and blooming. The scream ripped right through the night and paralyzed the three on the ground, fear shooting through them, and yet they couldn’t look away. Cerberus nudged N and muttered “radio” and somewhere, somehow it clicked, she felt around and her sweaty, clammy palm closed around the cool device safe within her pocket, she fished it out and frantically twirled the little dial, although she had no idea what she was looking for and it wasn't until the radio static  gave way to a very familiar voice that there was a tiny blink of understanding.

 

_{ --. ..- -.-- ... --..-- / .--. .-.. . .- ... . --..-- / .-- .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / -.-- --- ..- ..--.. / -.-. . .-. -... . .-. ..- ... / .. ... / --. --- -. . / .- -. -.. / .. / -.-. .- -. / .... .- .-. -.. .-.. -.-- / ..-. .. --. ..- .-. . / .... --- .-- / - --- / ..- ... . / - .... .. ... / - .... .. -. --. .-.-.- / --. ..- -.-- ... / .--. .-.. . .- ... . .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- .--. .-.. . .- ... . .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- }_

 

At the same time the voice from the radio cut out, Wash stopped. his eyes rolled forward, a bright and brilliant blue, electric, like an animatronic, and bloodshot. And he fell, like the cut puppet, he fell flat hurtling towards the ground and then… nothing. Just a pile of limbs and skin and muscle and bones and blood on the ground, and yet he seemed perfectly unharmed.

 

West rushed forward first, her face set, like a switch had been flicked, or a dial turned set to: Medic Mode. Within second she was counting off vital signs and had placed Wash in the recovery position. She looked up at N and Cerberus and stared at them to do something. They did absolutely nothing. In truth, Cerberus felt like he was either going to throw up or scream, he couldn't tell which and N was busy trying to process any of what she saw.

 

After a few minutes the gurgling noise had come back and N instinctively winced for a repeat of the spectacle, but instead found Wash’s eyes opening to their usual steely grey, his carefully clambering up onto all fours before his body jerked and with splattering noise, he threw up, bright blue bile ending up on the ground before him. It seemed that Cerberus didn’t deal too well with vomit as this time he too threw up in some nearby bushes, while N simply shut her eyes and wrinkled her face in clear disgust.

 

“Wash, can you hear me?” West’s voice was quite cool and practical, and N supposed she was used to this kind of thing, well, the vomit at the very least.

 

Wash gave a sort of whimper and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, mumbling incomprehensible words and fisting and unfisting his hands. Very little was audible and even less was understandable.

 

“N, could you search the tower for a blanket and a possible medkit?”

 

The other agents voice felt like it was being spoken from very far away as N came back to senses.

 

“Right. Yeah… right.” She started to walk towards the tower, giving Wash a wide berth, and hardly seemed to notice her tight grip on the radio until she attempted to climb the ladder, as the device made a soft clang. She jumped upon hearing it and then stuffed the damned thing into her pocket, continuing to ascend, and hopefully find the things she needed. For now, all she wanted to do was do what she was told. That would be enough to keep her sane.

  
_{ ... .- -. .. - -.-- / .. ... / -... ..- - / .- -. / .. .-.. .-.. ..- ... .. --- -. .-.-.- / .-- .... --- / -.- -. --- .-- ... / .... --- .-- / ... .- -. . / .-- . / .- .-. . / -. --- .-- .-.-.- }_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to all of you who decided to read onwards! also, another kudos to those of you who know where i got my title from and can name both the song and the artist. ^^


	7. Nonexistent, and Yet I Still Love You.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !Warning! 
> 
> okay, once again, mentions of vomit and some other graphic content in this chapter. also this is where the story may get slightly confusing. so clarify some things, in this AU Texas and Allison are two completely separate people. i don't want to get too into it, because spoilers, soooo hopefully that clears some stuff up? more will be explained further in the story so just hold tight folks.

He remembers blue. It started at the edges of his vision, originally he thought it was nothing, and then it steadily grew, until it had encompassed his sight completely. He thought, bizarrely, that it was like staring into the depths of the ocean, the deepest level, and seeing some hulking mass that lurked there, undiscovered for centuries. He also thought, momentarily, of the other shades of blue he knew, this one reminded him of Church, he watched as the blue changed and swirled and became brighter, this one, now, this one was more like Caboose that ever childish man, and then finally, the blue lightened into something that was so unmistakeable it couldn’t possible be anyone else.

Tucker.

That blue (“no, dude it’s AQUA!”) idiot.

As the colour swam before his vision it seemed to settle itself into a kind of mist, and as it began to clear, so did his other senses. Laughter, he heard laughter, pealing and loud and easily identifiable as York, because it could be no one else with that sort of laughter what it came to his mistakes. He saw the darkness that was the night sky, dotted with tiny pinpricks of light, and on the edge of his right peripheral vision was the orangey light of a fire, flickering and faint.

“Need a hand?”

The voice wasn’t recogniseable. And he frowned at the face that accompanied it. Red hair, if he hadn’t focussed his eyes he would’ve mistaken it for Tex or Carolina, but the hair was slightly fairer and her eyes were brown. He took the hand warily and indeed got up off the ground. Everything was the same, same party, same fire, same new recruits, same red solo cups, same shitty beer.

“I cannot believe you fell off, I told you you would, but you didn’t listen!” He hardly registered the words of this new redhead, correction, this new excitable and happy redhead, when the other two were always so cold.

“... Wash? Oi, I’m talking here.”

Wash blinked. Slowly.

“Who… are you?”

York’s laughter increased tenfold, “oh my god! You gotta be joking, tell me you’re joking Wash!”

Wash stayed silent.

“Dude, that’s Al. you know… Al.”

“... Al?”

West, who Wash was quite sure by now was NOT West at all because this was just some stupid horrible nightmare and he would wake up in Fort Milner again like always, gave him a frown.

“Should I give him a checkup or something?”

The redhead beside him gave a chuckle “Wash...c’mon it’s me. Don’t try and play dumb now of all times..”

But her words were lost on him. This… Al, whoever she was. His brain couldn’t figure it out, and vaguely his brain flitted back to that lovely shade of aqua, and then it dawned, and it made his heart pound and it made him take on a cold sweat.

“Tucker.” The word fell from his lips in a panic. “Where the fuck is Tucker?”

This time it was the rest of the camp’s turn to take on his confusion from earlier.

“Who’s Tucker?” North asked, clearly curious.

He broke. Tucker, ha, how could they not remember Tucker, he was so stupid and so idiotic it was impossible to not remember him. They were joking, yes, that’s it. Joking. This was all just one huge joke.

“Tucker, the loud mouthed arsehole, the idiotic ‘Bow chicka bow wow’, you know?”

There was silence.

“The stupid prick, the guy who jokes about fucking everyone, c’mon guys you _do_ remember him.”

“...West, I think that checkup might actually be a good idea.” came Al from beside him.

“Who helped me over the fence just then?” Wash hissed.

“I did.” Al said simply, looking bewildered. 

Wash started to shake, “he’s not gone! Tucker helped me over, not you. He was… he kept joking the whole time about how bangable my ass was, and I mean, at the time he was just being so fucking stupid but honestly I kinda miss how much that prick used to go on about my ass, and I’m not trying to say I'm attracted to him because I mean I don’t think I am but still-”

He was raving, he knew it. His brain screamed at him to stop but his mouth just kept going, and the rest of the camp stared at him as if he was lying or ill or something else very fucked up but he wasn’t lying. He knew that much. Tucker was here. He was, he was so sure…

_{ . .-. .. - .... --..-- / -.-- --- .-. -.- --..-- / -.-. .- .-. --- .-.. .. -. .- --..-- / - ..- -.-. -.- . .-. .-.-.- / .. -. / - .... .- - / --- .-. -.. . .-. .-.-.- - ..- -.-. -.- . .-. --..-- / - ..- -.-. -.- . .-. --..-- / - ..- -.-. -.- . .-. .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... - ..- .--. .. -.. / -... .-.. ..- . / .. -.. .. --- - .-.-.- / .... --- .-- / -.. --- . ... / .. - / ..-. . . .-.. / - --- / .... .- ...- . / .... .. -- / ..-. --- .-. --. --- - - . -. / .... ..- .... ..--.. / .... --- .-- / -.. --- . ... / .. - / ..-. . . .-.. ..--.. / -... . -.-. .- ..- ... . / .-- . / .... .- - . / -... . .. -. --. / ..-. --- .-. --. --- - - . -. .-.-.- / -- .- -.-- -... . / -.-- --- ..- / -.- -. --- .-- / -. --- .-- .-.-.- / -... ..- - / -. --- / --- -. . / . ...- . .-. / -.. --- . ... .-.-.- / .-- . .----. .-. . / .- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ... / ..-. --- .-. --. --- - - . -. / .. -. / - .... . / . -. -.. .-.-.- / -- .- --. --. .. . --..-- / .- -. -.. / .- -. -. .- --..-- / .- -. -.. / .- .-.. --..-- / .- -. -.. / .- .-.. .-.. / --- ..-. / ..- ... .-.-.- }_

  
The blue was coming back again, and now he was starting to hate it. It reminded him of Tucker and filled him with such an ache, a longing, because in this world Tucker did not exist. And it was an unfathomable thought, a bottomless canyon that would never end.

_“Krsschhhhhh… WE ARE ALWAYS FORGOTTEN! ... HOW DOES IT FEEL TO REMEMBER?!”_

The words came, plastered across the blue, all wrong, like a million voices stitched together trying to form one through the static.

_“I WAS LOVED ONCE...KRSHHHCCCHH...MAYDAY PLEASE SOMEONE?!...AL! AL! AL!_

_skreeeeeaaaaak...EPSILON. I REPEAT THIS IS CODENAME EPSILON OF THE USS KANALOA DISTRESS SIGNAL 357 PLEASE RESPOND...KRSCHHHHHHHH”_

And the words were gone. And his head was spinning and his throat felt sore and there was so much blue it was everything. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He was trapped in this blue and he just wanted it to stop. For someone to please just-

His eyes opened to two pairs of feet and the ground. He felt like shit and probably didn't look any better. He could hear West but it was as if he was submerged very deep underwater and she was at the surface, yelling. It was all very muffled. His brain was scrambled and various thoughts of Tucker drifted through his head, he knew he'd be smiling like an idiot if it didn't hurt for him to do so and if he wasn't feeling the way he did physically. With what seemed like an incredibly huge effort, he rolled himself onto all fours, but it seemed that this repositioning of gravity did not do anything to help him, instead it brought whatever was left in the recesses of his stomach upwards towards his mouth, and honestly he couldn’t think of a worse taste.

He knew from the moment the bile hit the ground, it was blue, And honestly seeing such a thing just made him feel sicker than he already was. Everyone’s voices seemed like a million miles away, faded and distant and not quite there. He found his mouth moving, making words, without his control, but even then he still knew what he was saying.

Tucker.

It was always, would always be, Tucker.

 

 


	8. Finding Erith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yup. 2017. and we're starting this new year with old movie puns friends. 
> 
> Also the part from Erith's perspective at the beginning of this chapter was written by my editor and Beta reader, who actually was the one to create Erith as an OC.
> 
> !Warning! This chapter features reference to panic attacks, and dissociation. (Based on real life experiences.)

The room was cold; a damp chill which seemed to stay around her. A series of green flashing lights on the board that Cerberus was playing with were the only things which lit the room. Erith had tried to turn on the overhead earlier but the bulb was out, and the metal door was locked so the two had no real idea of where they were.

Clicks of switches and Cerberus’s voice were the only things making noise in the room other than the sound of Erith’s boots hitting the floor as she paced through the room. She kept gripping and digging her nails into her arms as she tried to calm down. Cerberus sucked in a breath and sighed, his body seeming to deflate.

 

“Is it working?” She knew it was a redundant question but it looked like he needed to talk about something that wasn’t a distress call.

 

“This thing is  ancient . It probably works just like it did in its beginnings; like a piece of shit.” He kicked the table and started muttering about how annoying the old tech was.

Cerberus was used to having updated hardware but if technology wasn’t working for him he’d figure out a way to make it work for him. Erith had no idea how he did it. She much preferred things to have a specific way and order to do them. A piece of paper and a calculation, putting things into their correct place and order, a seven hour shooting session. The plain and simple truth.

 

“If that thing isn’t working then try whatever else is in here.” Erith said leaning over the back of Cerberus to look at the broken communication panel. She looked over to a large box with several dials and what seemed to be and old fashioned microphone attached. “Why don’t you try that one?”

 

Cerberus snorted. “Yeah like that one’ll work. It’s older than this trash.” He kicked the table again to punctuate his sentence. Erith just looked at him and rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll do it. Just for you.”

 

He rolled on the office chair over to the box and flicked a switch. The frequency pin moved as the radio turned on and started to work after years of being offline. Cerberus set of to work and tried to get a clear frequency.

 

“Hey… is this thing on? Heh, testing 1, 2, 3… uh… seriously though… can someone get us outta here? This is kinda… creepy. I don’t exactly appreciate being stuck in this stupid tower… um… yeah… so… help?” Cerberus turned to Erith as if he was expecting some praise for getting it to work as if it wasn’t his job in the first place. She gave him a sarcastic thumbs up in response.

 

“Hey, Erith d’you think this radio thing will work?”

 

“I don’t know but at least you tried it.” Erith turned to survey the room for what felt the hundredth time. The walls in the room were lined with shelves. Boxes filled with faded transcripts, moldy manuals, and files. Tons of files. They almost seemed to be everywhere. She grabbed one of the files and looked through it. One each page was a different code and what it meant. Dates, times, and locations were written on the page. Erith got another file and opened to a random section but pages had been ripped out from its spot. Other pages had thick black lines through most of the text to censor what had once been written there.

 

“That’s weird, hey Ceb?” She got no response. Erith walked over to Cerberus clicking her fingers. “Did you see that? Come on, you can’t tell me this is not weird.” He stared at the comm panel not looking at her. “It’s not funny Ceb. Ceb!” He turned around and looked straight through her. He shrugged and turned back to whatever he was doing with the radio. Now Erith started to really worry.

 

No matter what she did to Cerberus she could get him to realise she was there. She even tried to throw her shoe at the chair he was sitting in but she just couldn’t get through to him. After awhile he started to use the radio again and started to have a conversation she couldn’t hear. It was as if her ears were full of cotton buds or she’d gone up a hill and hadn’t popped her ears. Something wasn’t right.

 

 

 

Cerberus looked far too casual. His feet were kicked up on the desk, chatting to a closed door. Erith couldn’t read his emotions. Too many expressions on his face at the one time. As he stood up for the first time in the room, his joints seemed to jolt under his weight but when he started to walk, Erith realised that she couldn’t feel the vibrations of his clomping steps through the floor.

“What the fuck?” Her hands pressed to the floor as she looked up from her place on the ground, watching Cerberus move towards the door with no intentions of opening it. Erith watched as he phased through the locked door like it was nothing.

“What the actual FUCK?” Her head spun and she felt sick to her stomach. She could feel her breaths become quicker as she tried to come up with an excuse as to why that never happened. “He’s gone. First he couldn’t see me now he’s fucking disappeared. Fuck… shit.”

She stared at the bookcase in front of her as the world buzzed around her and her mind went blank.

Erith had no idea how long she sat on the floor, staring at nothing but as everything slowly came back into focus she started to worry about Cerberus again. She raced over to the chair he had left trying to mimic what he had done earlier with the radio.

“Guys, please, where are you? Cerberus is gone and I can hardly figure out how to use this thing.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and her leg started to bounce up and down without her thinking about it. “Guys please… please…” The stable pace of her tapping foot seemed to calm her down. Erith continued to change dials and setting on the radio until she heard voices full of static.

“N, could you search-” Static had taken over the voice.

 

“Right. Yeah… right.” The second voice was one that Erith knew. She could hear Nebraska.

 

{ .--. . . -.- .- -... --- --- }

 

Blankets. That’s what she needed, she needed to find blankets, because Wash had just...what? What would you call that? Did it have a name?  She rummaged around through the cupboards, because, well, of course that’s where the blankets would be, however after a few minutes of feeling the back of the cupboards for hidden compartments (of which there were none) she came up empty handed.

 

“Fuck… what am I gonna tell West now?”  sighing, N started to fiddle with the radio offhandedly until there was a soft whirr of static, and a loud feedback noise came from the comm station at the side of the room, which made N jump (not for the first time that night).

As the static died down, there was a blurry sort of… green-outlined figure, carefully solidifying itself in static and radio waves, bent over the Comm station. N stared in disbelief.

 

“Erith?!”

 

The figure that looked almost, but not entirely, unlike Erith. Swore, looked at N, back at the comm station, and then back to N, showed a various array of facial expressions which she then tried to mask unsuccessfully, and finally stepped forward slightly.

 

“N?”

 

“Um…”

 

“It’s… actually you. You can hear me? And… and…”

 

“I think so?”

 

Erith seemed to stay quite still for a moment before walking up to N and hugging her. For N it rather felt like being enveloped inside a radio. Static pouring off of her. She didn’t know what it must’ve been like for Erith.

 

“What do you know?”

 

“Sorry?”

 

“I mean it, what do you know… about. Whatever this thing that is going on is! I saw Cerberus talk to invisible people and then walk right through a closed door… I… don’t- don’t know what’s going on.”

 

“If I could tell you, I would. But… I’m pretty sure it has something to do with this…” she fumbled around with the radio is her hand as she held it up “and those comm stations, some kind of-” she broke off as she remembered, “right! Blankets! Do you know where and if there are blankets in this place?"

 


	9. Realize.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erith gets back to reality and Wash discovers something he should have a long long time ago

The descent from the tower was easier said than done with an armful of blankets  _ and  _ the radio in one hand. Managing Erith was much easier once she was tuned in to the right station; and of course, there was also the “making sure she can actually get through material objects” part of it. By the time she reached the bottom rungs, Wash had seemed to calm down somewhat. 

“I got the blankets.” N called, coming over to West and Cerberus, both of whom were sitting on either side of Wash. 

 

“Thanks.” West nodded, taking them from her.

 

“I also found Erith.”

 

“Oh you… WHAT?!”

 

N gestured towards the incorporeal Erith that stood beside her.

 

West stared at the empty spot with raised eyebrows, “... that’s air, N.”

 

N frowned, “no! No it’s Erith! It… wait… you can’t see her?”

 

“No.”

 

“Damn…” N looked towards Erith, who was currently standing, arms folded.

 

“You know, maybe another frequency on that radio of yours would help.” Her voice sounded like static, far more so than before.

 

N frowned, “I don’t really want to put you back in that bubble…”

 

“... What bubble?”

 

“The time bubble… uh… well that’s what I think it was.”

 

West gave N a slightly concerned look. “Are you sure this night isn’t getting to you?”

 

N blinked, “of course it’s getting to me. I’ve questioned my sanity at least twice!”

West made a noise of concern then went back to tending Wash, who’d calmed down enough but wasn’t speaking, mostly for fear of throwing up again. 

Cerberus was standing a little ways away, to be honest he looked shaken, more shaken than N had ever seen him. He glanced at her and cracked a smile that tried to look joking but only looked more like he had toothache.

 

“Hey uh… what do you call it when Erith types something? Serif. Get it? Like the font?”

 

Nobody laughed, aside from Erith who currently only N could see. 

“Shut up Cerberus. If you're trying to make Wash laugh I fear we'll end up with more glowing blue vomit.”

Wash gave a soft groan. “Oh I don’t think I have anything left to puke.”

 

There was a slight silence before N chuckled, just a little. “Too right Wash.” She paused, “hey, can you see Erith right now?”

“Solid as can be.” He croaked before dissolving into a fit of coughs which caused West to instantly rush to him again.

N stared at him. “Wait, you  _ can _ see her?! Ha! I am not crazy!”

 

Erith gave her a withering look, “that’s a bit harsh considering I’m  _ right here _ .” She rolled her eyes, “c’mon, just try a different frequency. There’s a chance I could go back to looking normal. And if the ‘loop’ resets then fine! You can come and get me again.”

N frowned but gave in. A quick twirling of the dial and Erith was wavering in and out of focus, until eventually a very much solid Erith fell into reality, quite literally, with a thud, coughing. 

West spun ‘round “Erith?!”

N gave her a look “I told you so.” she offered a hand and helped Erith up. 

Erith shot everyone a glare. “Never leave me alone again. Ever.” She marched up to Cerberus and jabbed him in the chest. “Especially you. Git.”

Cerberus just held up his hands. “Sorry…”

West just shook her head, “Erith sit on my other side. I need to look at you after I'm done with Wash.”

Wash gave a sort of grunt and smiled at Erith painfully before his expression fell and he curled over once more.

“Wash, what do you remember?” West asked. 

There was a pause as Wash racked his head, from where it was currently positioned between his knees, for an answer. 

 

“...Blue.”

 

“Blue?”

 

“Yeah… a lot of blue… and…” his head shot up, “Tucker.” 

 

He ran his hands through his hair, “Tucker… ohh god, you guys… you know who he is right?”

 

“Yeah, ‘course we know him. I mean… we just met him but-”

 

“Oh good… oh thank god…”

 

“Why? What’s up with him? I mean you were muttering his name earlier when you first came to but…” West’s words faded.

Wash swallowed thickly and placed his head back between his knees, feeling his face growing hot. “Ah well… seems kinda… weird thing to notice in this scenario but…” he looked up at the three pairs of eyes all giving him a varying array of confusion.

 

 

“I think I like him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, my ships override everything.


End file.
